The invention relates to a flywheel for small size tape recorders.
A tape drive mechanism for a small size tape recorder generally comprises a capstan for transporting a tape at a uniform rate, a flywheel for rotating the capstan at a uniform rate, a drive motor, and a transmission disposed between the motor and the flywheel. A miniature motor used as a drive source in a tape recorder has a rotor with a very large moment of inertia, and a flywheel also has a very large moment of inertia in order to achieve a uniform rotational speed of the capstan. When an idle pulley is interposed between these components, which have an increased moment of inertia, in order to permit their rotation in the same direction, inconveniences are caused in that a greater starting torque is required of the motor or an increased braking effort must be applied to stop the capstan.
In particular, with a tape recorder of miniature size which employs a micro-cassette tape and which is adapted to be gripped by hand during use, any swinging motion of the recorder which is very likely to occur may add the influence of external forces to the angular momentum of the motor rotor and the flywheel. Some means must be provided therefore to compensate for any variation in the angular momentum in order to assure a satisfactory recording response. If an idle pulley is used which rotates in the opposite direction from the rotor and the flywheel, the diameter of such idle pulley would be limited by design considerations, and the limited diameter of the idle pulley makes it almost impossible to achieve a full compensation.